I’ve known Swollenpickles for simple ages now, it may have been before joining the Aussie Bloggers forum but I can’t be sure. Swollenpickles and I have had a couple of good chats about comics and he also runs Comicologist where we share a lot of the same ideas when it comes to comic books.
Favourite regular series right Now? Probably a tie between Immortal Iron Fist and Moon Knight, with the current X-Men series running a close second.
Comic book character you only recently discovered/started reading?
I guess I’m still new enough to comics that they are all relatively recent discoveries. I only recently discovered Wanted and that was awesome. I also recently discovered the Dark Phoenix saga (not that is new, but it was new to me).
If you could draw/write one character who would it be? Besides Deadpool, it would have to be Moon Knight. He’s a super hero onion. Layers… plus he can make a grown man cry, I’m told it’s one of his powers.
Actually, I can’t limit it to one, so I have to say I’d like to take a crack at Wolverine Origins, if nothing else, just to pick up the pace a bit. Two things bug me about that book. The pacing seems unnecessarily drawn out and Dillion seems to have a Sylvester Stallone fascination. Take a look at any male face he’s drawn and see if it doesn’t look like Sylvester Stallone to you!
Are you a fan of the big multi issue crossover extravaganzas? Only when it’s done well. I think Messiah Complex was really well put together. Civil War was good also, but all the spinoffs became a bit much.
World War Hulk was kind of disappointing, especially after how brilliant Planet Hulk as.
Last comic book series that you dropped and why?  I’m not going to worry about the next Hulk series. Planet Hulk was awesome,
but then along came World War Hulk and they lost me. Some of the World War Hulk tie ins were absolutely terrible as well. The WWH X-Men four issue thing was unforgiveable.
Favourite character?
Deadpool, Gambit or Moon Knight. Gambit has been a favorite for as long as I can remember, Deadpool and Moon Knight I’ve only started appreciating later in life.
Are you a DC or a Marvel?  Marvel for sure. Besides Batman, I can’t think of a major DC series that I’m
in to.
Do you remember your first comic/series? Late bloomer, but it was Cable & Deadpool. Actually only got into reading
comics because of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance. What sort of geek am I? I bought Cable & Deadpool Vol.1 and Batman Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth at the same time. I tore through Cable & Deadpool and promptly order the other trades that were out at the time.
Is Watchmen the movie going to be as good as the comic book? I saw the preview at IMAX and it looks like it just might.
Favourite comic book movie?
The Dark Knight.
Worst comic book movie?
Ghost Rider. Terrible.
Character you’d like to see in a movie? Deadpool, Gambit or Moon Knight… see a trend here? I think Immortal Iron
Fist would make an excellent movie as well.
Series that you’d like to see on TV? I’m not sure. It would have to be something more character driven I think for it to work. Actually, I’d like to see the Walking Dead series adapted for TV or a movie. It’s got that epic serial feel, plus it has zombies so everyone wins!
I was out and about this evening and showed up in EB games with a half off PS2 game sale and I was trying to make up my mind on a couple of games when I thought, you know this would be easier if I could just talk to MC (who is my guru of PS2 gaming, he has a mental amount of games and I respect that and acknowledge the man’s skills).
Yes I have my iPhone on but to email him and then wait for a reply all the while Tracey is sitting outside the store because the woman has god like patience but even Thor has his limits (anyone read Secret Invasion #6 today and actually find themselves digging Thor!?) and if I spent more time I think she may have summoned up her own Mjöllnir and belted me with it (realistically she could have gotten a hammer from K-Mart for $2.65 and thrown it at me, honestly the difference in the damage the mythical hammer of Thor or a $2.65 with GST hammer from K-Mart would do to my head is really not worth mentioning).
So I sighed and picked up a couple of titles including one of the Grand Theft Auto’s because I haven’t played any of them yet and I think this was the one that MC claims is awesome. Â Of course they couldn’t actually find the contents of the box so I am no closer to becoming a Grand Theft Auto fan than I was yesterday.
I did pick up Max Payne #1 because Arjan suggested I play it and the movie is coming up and it was $7.50, even Tracey isn’t going to hit me with a Norse tool for that. Â The other game was X-Men Legends, because… I’m a comic book geek, have we not come to that conclusion yet?
I did think that a good thing would be to have an instant messenger on my iPhone, that way I could just go online and see if anyone else was on at the same time.  Unfortunately my IM of choice is Windows Live which is very little use on my Apple iPhone…….. ok even as I type this I’ve discovered an app that allows me to log on to several IM’s and talk to people.  Cool.
OK so I’m usually really slack on IM but I’m interested in getting more into it - so if you are on Live Messenger why not add me to your friends list: lee@sarge.com.au (I rarely check that actual email address these days so don’t bother writing to that one, use the contact form).
Anyone use any other types of instant messenger? Â If I sign up to others I’ll post them here.
I think this is my favourite top five list so far because it gave me the chance to reminisce on what I think are absolute little comic book movie gems.
The Stan Lee cameo.
Forget anything else but above all Stan Lee is a living treasure/legend/icon. Â The man is responsible for some of the greatest comic book characters ever. Â Nuff said
Fantastic Four - There are a couple of reasons why I like this cameo so much, for one thing it is a speaking role and is not too much out of place and secondly it’s based on an actual character! Â Willie Lumpkin postal worker, whom Stan helped create. Â It is just a real treat for me as a comic book fan and I’m reminded of the character’s appearance in the Marvel Onslaught comic.
Spider-man - Stan saves a little girl from being crushed by some falling concrete and bricks during one of the fight scenes. Â It’s a cool scene simple because Stan shows us that one man can make a difference and be a hero - he also repeats the act in the sequel.
Daredevil - Â A young Matt Murdock saves a man in the street with his face stuck in the newspaper from stepping out into the traffic. Â It’s a nicely shot scene and not overdone which is what can happen in some cameos.
Incredible Hulk - It is of course a tradition now to spot Stan and I had a huge grin on my face as he is the ‘old guy’ who has a brush with gamma irradiated sports-drink, again a nicely shot cameo.
Heroes - Ok it’s not a Marvel film, it’s not even a film but the brilliant, brilliant Heroes season one (did I mention it is brilliant?) knows where its origins lay. Â I almost jumped out of my seat when Hiro goes to board a bus and who happens to be the driver and has lines!? Stan the Man. Â It should be mentioned another homage in that series that made me very warm inside. Â The Kirby plaza.
Now there are other cameos that are cool like his appearance in Mallrats and there are some that are simply background shots such as X-Men (he’s either selling hotdogs on the beach or eating them in the background anyway). Â There is a really bizarre appearance too, one that I didn’t know, one I wish I didn’t know, The Princess Diaries 2:
Just to wash that out of your mind I also have a montage someone put together and the Heroes scene:
In 2007 Spider-man 3 and 300 both appear in the top ten grossing films for that year, in 2006 the comic book movies were X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns and the year before that saw Batman Begins in that top ten list.
Comic book movies are a huge part of the movie industry now with more on the way (yay!) so the little robots at Quit Your Day Job have been furiously working out the top five comic book movies for this weeks Friday Five:
Iron Man - With all the fanboy drooling I’ve done around here in the past couple of days this is really a no-brainer. Â I stand by my choice though and for once the critics are supporting me. Â I mean I’m sure there are going to be plenty of people who dislike this film, they’re entitled to their opinion even if they are wrong. Â Downey Jr is brilliantly cast as Tony Stark and the rest of the cast all put in quality performances, its pace is great even for an origin film and effects are excellent. Â What makes the movie stand out though is that it is heavily focused on the man behind the mask, what makes him want to be Iron Man and what are his flaws?
Spider-Man 2 - I generally dislike origin films and this is the only reason Spider-Man 2 instead of the first one is featured on the list. Â That and I think this is just a more well rounded film when compared to the first. Â The special effects seemed to be a little smoother. Â The Spider-Man films really show the quality that can be made from such great source material. Â The costume alone is worth it, the wonderful texture that they added to it adds to the overall effect of the film.
Batman Begins - Ummm did I just say I dislike origin films? Â Four out of the five can be classed as origin films (X-Men is on the fence). Â This was a hard choice for me though, a Batman film was always going to be in the list, end of story, but which one? Â I loved the 89 Tim Burton film, it reintroduced Batman and certainly fostered my love of comic books and their movies. Â But when I look at that period of Batman films I probably prefer Batman Returns the most, Batman and Robin the least (does this really have to be said?). Â I recognise however that Batman Begins is a superior Batman film in most ways, the only reason I think I would prefer the others is because they came out as I was maturing and had heavy influences on my life. Â Bale is a fantastic Batman and the way they built the character up in this film was really well done and in the theme of the current Batman comics. Â You can’t stand in the same stream twice so I accept change and new ideas and I accept Batman Begins.
X-Men - I always feared that X-Men would be too involved, too convoluted with too much back story for me to ever enjoy. Â I tried to get on board the comic series several times only to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material and characters. Â I was pleased to see only a core group in the first X-Men film and another great cast. Â Wolverine particularly shines in this one as it was always expected to be. Â I was surprised and eventually really impressed with their handling of Magneto.
Superman - I really enjoyed Superman Returns but mainly because of the homage and respect paid to the original Superman film. Â I mean this is really the grand daddy of them all. Â Another example of when casting goes very right. Â Christopher Reeve was simply wonderful as Superman/Clark Kent. Â The tagline to the film was ‘you’ll believe a man can fly’ and despite the effect not holding up today it was true for the time. Â What an amazing soundtrack.
This was actually a hard list and it breaks my heart to have left some films off, Hellboy, The Punisher, 300, From Hell and Sin City all could have gone on the list, but it’s a list of five. Â So what other comic book movies are you all partial to?
Haven’t quite thought of next week’s top five - it’ll be a surprise!
I can’t say that I have a number one favourite comic book character. Often it depends on my mood and I sway from Hellboy to Iron Man to Batman to a number of characters.
At one of our local shopping centres there is a vending machine that offers a set of 8 figurines from Marvel comics that I discovered when we were moving.
Now when I first discovered the toys I was overtired, exhausted and generally miserable. So to lighten up my day I thought I’ll treat myself. The nature of the machine is that it is all random and you don’t know what you’ll get.
Looking over the selection I decided the two I really wanted were Iron Man and the Punisher. The two I really didn’t want were Mystique and Nightcrawler.
Honestly who wants Nightcrawler? Surely there’s no market for Nightcrawler? If you are picking the X-Men why not Wolverine? Or Cyclops?
So my question for all you pop culture junkies and comic book fans is there anyone out there who is an actual Nightcrawler fan? I don’t mean fan in that you don’t mind him or he’s part of the X-Men. You have to prefer Nightcrawler over all over characters. I want to hear from you!
As you can imagine from my rant here I got a Nightcrawler. On the up side I got the Punisher too. Today we went back and I got another bloody Nightcrawler and Dr Octopus.
So if you can convince me that you are a Nightcrawler fan I have a spare Nightcrawler that I’m putting on the table. What will convince me? Photo of you with your Nightcrawler comic book collection. Photo of you dressed as Nightcrawler (unpublished online previously). This will run until I’m convinced so go crazy and get creative!
Yes I have my iPhone on but to email him and then wait for a reply all the while 
I did pick up Max Payne #1 because 
Looking over the selection I decided the two I really wanted were Iron Man and the Punisher. The two I really didn’t want were Mystique and Nightcrawler.
So if you can convince me that you are a Nightcrawler fan I have a spare Nightcrawler that I’m putting on the table. What will convince me? Photo of you with your Nightcrawler comic book collection. Photo of you dressed as Nightcrawler (unpublished online previously). This will run until I’m convinced so go crazy and get creative!
